fetchmail-users

[fetchmail-users] server problems

[Thomas I. <is...@ch...>]

I am still having problems with fetchmail and my 3 mail servers.  I  
have read the Retrieval Failure Modes section of the fetchmail man  
page, but I still cannot solve my problem.  I was able to use nmap to  
determine that the servers I am polling are all pop3, so the issues  
with pop2 listed in that section of the man page are not relevant.

For the 2 servers that give me trouble, nmap says they are pop3, but  
cannot determine the server info from the fingerprint.  For the  
server that works correctly, nmap says it is pop3d (notice the 'd')  
and that it is a Novell Groupwise server.

Do you have any other advice for using nmap to troubleshoot this?

Any other suggestions?

Below is my original message describing the problem.  In short, I  
receive all mail from the the 2 problematic servers every time I poll  
them.  I only want to receive unread mail.

--------

I have my .fetchmailrc set to poll 3 mail servers (like below but  
without the specific servers, usernames, and passwords).  As you can  
see I have all three servers set up the same way.  However, both  
servers 1 and 3 always download all my mail whether it was read  
previously or not.  server2 skips downloading previously read  
messages and only downloads mail that is new since the last fetch.   
Because I have the three set up the same here in my .fetchmailrc,  
there must be something specific to the servers that causes this  
behavior.

1) How can I figure out the nature of the servers on the other end? And,

2) What can I do in my .fetchmailrc file to make fetchmail skip  
downloading previously read messages for all servers?

I check my mail from a number of computers, and I want all my mail to  
be available to all the computers, but have each computer only  
download the mail that is new for that particular computer (but which  
I may have read on another one already)

Thanks in advance,
isen

defaults
   no fetchall
   keep
   limit 500000

set postmaster "username"
set bouncemail

poll server1
   protocol pop3
   user username1
   password 'pass1'

poll server2
   protocol pop3
   user username2
   password 'pass2'

poll server3
   protocol pop3
   user username3
   password 'pass3'

Re: [fetchmail-users] server problems

[Rob M. <rob...@gm...>]

On 1/3/07, Thomas Isenbarger <is...@ch...> wrote:
> I am still having problems with fetchmail and my 3 mail servers.  I
> have read the Retrieval Failure Modes section of the fetchmail man
> page, but I still cannot solve my problem.  I was able to use nmap to
> determine that the servers I am polling are all pop3, so the issues
> with pop2 listed in that section of the man page are not relevant.

You obviously missed the FAQ about the information needed :-)  I'd
point you at the online one, but currently the people that host the
fetchmail website are off the air.d

> Do you have any other advice for using nmap to troubleshoot this?

You're over complicating the solution, honestly.

> Any other suggestions?

Yeah, read the man page :)

> Below is my original message describing the problem.  In short, I
> receive all mail from the the 2 problematic servers every time I poll
> them.  I only want to receive unread mail.

Try the UIDL option (as specified in the description of the "keep"
keyword in the man page).

> I check my mail from a number of computers, and I want all my mail to
> be available to all the computers, but have each computer only
> download the mail that is new for that particular computer (but which
> I may have read on another one already)

UIDL is the *ONLY* way forwards if you're using POP.  Without it then
the server tracks state, which isn't what you want.  Quoting the man
page:

| (Keyword: uidl) Force  UIDL  use  (effective  only  with  POP3).
| Force client-side tracking of 'newness' of messages (UIDL stands
| for "unique ID listing" and is described in RFC1939).  Use  with
| 'keep'  to  use  a  mailbox  as  a baby news drop for a group of
| users.

> defaults
>    no fetchall

This is already a fetchmail default, there's no need to specify it.

> poll server1
>    protocol pop3

For a (2 line) shorter .fetchmailrc you may as well specify pop3 as
the default protocol since all your remote servers use it.

-- 
                 Please keep list traffic on the list.

Rob MacGregor
      Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
        doesn't become a monster.                  Friedrich Nietzsche